Sault Saint Marie

I was fortunate to run into Ray and MaryAnne while camping at Sherman Park on the edge of town. It would have been a 4 mile one way walk with stuff I wanted to mail home and buying food for the start of my kayaking of the Southshore. Ray and MaryAnne are seasonal campers at Sherman. Interestingly they ran into and also assisted Bryan Hansel who I know from Grand Marais. He had paddled some of Lake Huron and went through the Soo .. camping at Sherman on the way to Superior's Southshore. I probably would have ended up staying 2 nights at Sheman had Ray not offered to run my errands wit his truck. I also sat around their fire Friday night and had coffee, eggs, toast and Grapefruit in this rig.

Ray and MaryAnne.. I guess the bright sunlight disguised them in shadow.

My little beach on the edge of the Park .. Sunset June 15

View of campground from where I put up my tent (and got away with it) The host said I'd have to move it to 'a site'. He said the security man would make me.. I said I can move it easy enough but I'll wait and try to talk the security guy into letting me leave it there near my kayak. I never saw the security guy and all was well.. I did pay my $20 however.. I have to find some free camping as Much as I can.. I don't have a budget to spend $140 a week in camping fees paddling the Southshore? .. Sherman Park.. They lock the gate at 11 PM and you need to find the campground host to unlock a shower if you want to take one.. Most surprising they also lock the restrooms from 11 PM until.. 8:15 AM. There are pit toilets and water elsewhere though I did not know it..

Final day with the group

June 15 was my final day with the group.. Dave, Amy and Dan. I'm on the south shore now heading west.

Almost ready to launch

There must have been maybe 150 huge wind turbines on the ridge...it's a windy place!

Our lunch stop spot

Another break hoping for the wind to drop as...predicted?

Good Bye

I'm on my own.. In Michigan

I left the group today.. Almost decided to camp with them one more night.. But at 5 pm decided to go the rest of the way to Sherman Park in Sault Ste Marie Michigan. I've met this couple MaryAnne and Ray who had met and assisted someone I know from Grand Marais Minnesota.. Bryan Hansel when he too camped here at Sherman Park.. It costs 20 bucks .. I plan to leave tomorrow which should be easy as my new friends have offered to drive to groceries and post office!!

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Canadians are so nice!

We've met some pretty nice people during our kayaking of the Canadian Lake Superior shore. We've been treated to accommodations, showers, camping and amazing dinners. This might be my last night camping in Canada? depending on how it goes. We had been turned back from our morning crossing of Goulias Bay..ending up on a beach with lake homes. We thought about pushing on when the wind let up but stronger winds were forecast for evening. It was uncomfortable thinking we'd have to camp right in front of cabins ... Luckily for us the owners of the place next to where our boats were came to cut the lawn for the upcoming weekend and we were given a warm welcome to camp at their place. They pointed out their outhouse and screen porch to use before saying goodbye and wishing us safe travels! Darren and Danica I believe It was. : )

A very warm welcome to camp on their land

Wonder if I'll have any similar experiences in Michigan ,Wisconsin and Minnesota?

Windy at Boulais Point

Timing is everything. We got up the earliest we have so far and hoped for another 30 mile day on the quest for my companions to reach their resupply package holder before Friday evening. 20 knot headwinds were forecast for later in the day with current winds at 15. We reached the end of Boulias Point and set out on the 4 mile crossing of Goulias Bay but turned back as conditions seemed futile. We went back to a beach and have been here about 5 hours. It's let up doom but still the strongest wind forecast is in the future. I think we'll end up camping here?? Every time we talk about how it's letting up, a strong gust comes. Hmmmmm? looks like an 8 mile day?

Group shot just as we started out today...

I'd say there were 30 knot gusts at this point shortly after we called off the crossing and hit the beach.

Point aux Mines to ...?

We are past Pancake Bay and Batchwana Bay. Lots of private property now. We're likely camped on some but there are no cabins. We are on a beach between cabins. We passed up on nice beaches for lunch due to there being cabins on them....we paddled on and on and finally decided to stop on a rocky beach even though there was a cabin up in the woods.
We had old remnants of swells less than half meter which became calm abs can be for he final 10 miles or so. Light winds which totally dropped to nothing toward the end. We are on mission to get to where the resupply was shipped in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. I'm just tagging along and tomorrow will be my last night with Dave, Amy and Dan. On Friday I will cross to Michigan, USA and continue paddling around Lake Superior while Wilderness Classroom will continue east through Georgian Bay of Lake Huron and on to the old Voyager Route that takes them to the St Lawrence Seaway.
I could just barely see Micigan today... I think It was Whitefish Point? It will be interesting finding a place to camp tomorrow night. Tonight was hard enough finding a place. I have located a nice little Park where I'll camp first night in Michigan, Sherman Park....It has camping. I'll have about a 4 mile walk to the grocery store and customs if they need me to check in? I'll call them when I get to the Park.

Didn't take many photos... We have officially left the beautiful, natural coast of Canada's Lake Superior and entered the zone of increasing residential and vacation development.

We came to a place with south shore geology.

Camped on a marshy beach area . Vacation homes in view across the way and we really don't know if this is private land but it's all we had to choose from...

Another day

I'm writing this on our 3rd day here. We camped here early the day before yesterday as the headwind had picked up and we decided being windbound with a network connection was worth something. Fighting for an extra few miles was likely to put us out of range. Today is the real windy day with over 2 meter seas so the marine forecast said.
Yesterday was hot and sunny.. Quite nice though some biting flies did become a problem...it was not until 4 pm or so. The south wind of yesterday has become west then northwest. No shorts and tee shirts this morning.. It was bundle up weather for our 10 am breakfast. Today is mostly cloudy...unlike the sunny day we had yesterday.
It's supposed to ease off to variable 10 knots by morning..seas half a meter. We're 70 miles from Sault Ste Marie and Dave hopes to make it by Friday due to picking up some resupply at someone's house who won't be around on the weekend?.. We'll see how that goes. I heard southeast winds of 15 knots... That's a headwind.

Solar power .. Dave and Amy working on updates etc...

It looked like we might have had a spectacular sunset...but the clouds at the horizon were just too heavy. Still it was a nice evening.. A calmer period between wind direction change..

Breakfast .. Pre-lunch book time

Doesn't look too bad eh? Though we are a bit protected where we're camped and waves are still building.

Where we are . Windbound

It looks like we'll end up being windbound here 2 days.. Camping 3 nights on the north side of Point aux Mines

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